UK Internet Porn Filter Provided by Huawei

UK Internet Porn Filter Provided by Huawei

It is interesting how two frightening topics can combine to make one super frightening topic. Unfortunately, that is what has happened this week. Let's recap the two individual stories and then where they intersect.

Huawei, a Chinese technology company, has been under investigation by the US government over security concerns of their devices possibly allowing the Chinese government access to phone data. The company has responded to the concerns saying that they have nothing to hide and encourages the investigations, but has also stopped shipping handsets to the States. These concerns have been prevalent within the US dating back to 2008 when they tried to merge with 3Com, and in the UK since 2005 when they bid for the Marconi Company.

In other, ideally unrelated, news, the UK has decided to enforce mandatory opt-out ISP-level content filtering. They have joined great countries like China and North Korea in the forced filtering market. All of the country's major ISPs have agreed to implement these filters, which will filter content such as "pornography," "dating," "games," and "social networking."

So, where do these 2 stories cross? In a UK ISP named TalkTalk, who will be implementing a filtering system called HomeSafe. The United Kingdom's Prime Minister, David Cameron praised the system as an example of "great leadership" in content filtering. As it turns out, HomeSafe is owned and operated by Huawei. Uh oh.

So, the company that will be providing content filtering for the UK's major ISP is run by the company the United States' Congress is convinced is responsible for, essentially, international espionage. If Huawei is actually conducting covert spying on foreign citizens via technology, this seems like the ideal way to make it happen.